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What language is Christmas in? | ||
Tags: Singing | Cultural Identity | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 1 of 26 09 December 2011 at 8:32am | IP Logged | ||
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So I was at a Christmas concert of sorts a week or so ago. It was pretty swell, with lots of singing of both carols and more modern songs. What struck me, though, was the fact that a solid half of the songs were in English (a single one, "Ave Maria", in German, and the rest in Swedish). The old traditional songs were mostly in Swedish, but anything newer than fifty years or so was in English, with a single exception. It got me thinking about Christmas in China, where I noticed there didn't appear to be any native Christmas songs at all. The songs were played in the stores constantly, but they were all in English. Of course, Christmas is very much an imported holiday in China, and Sweden is pretty much an American colony, culturally speaking (our most cherished Christmas tradition is watching Disney cartoons).
So tell me, what language is Christmas in where you are, or have been? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 26 09 December 2011 at 9:14am | IP Logged | ||
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The situation is - predictably - the same here. Most songs are in English. But Christmas is not Christmas
without Disney movies at 3' o clock in Swedish on Christmas Eve. They started showing Disney movies in Norwegian some years ago, but I have watched it in Swedish since I was 4 years old, so for me personally Christmas is partly English, partly Norwegian, and a little bit Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 26 09 December 2011 at 9:27am | IP Logged | ||
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The situation in Denmark is generally the same as in Sweden (except for different eating habits). But Tivoli in Copenhagen has for once opted for a BLUE Father Xmas, which technically defines him as a Father Winter like the one they have in Russia.
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| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6372 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 26 09 December 2011 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||
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In Australia, they are all in English. Edited by zerothinking on 09 December 2011 at 10:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5036 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 5 of 26 09 December 2011 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||
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In the U.S., most major media (Christmas-related and otherwise) is in English. The fact a
song like "O Tannenbaum" is of German origin is nothing more than a neat factoid to the majority of USians, as the German-language version gets virtually no airplay. Buuuut "Feliz Navidad," which is in Spanish and English, is a pretty famous song and a notorious earworm. Have fun getting that out of your heads, folks! Edited by Magdalene on 09 December 2011 at 11:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 26 09 December 2011 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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German, somehow. The only sort of celebrations on December 24-25 that I've ever had were in German class, and I was always glad to watch a film or listen to Christmas songs (: instead of grammar etc haha.
and I've recently found this cute song :))))) Germany was also the first country I visited around Christmas/New Year (already after Christmas, though), back in 2005. This year I also finally saw European pre-Christmas time in Finland and that's even more amazing so now there will also be something Finnish about my Christmas :) Orthodox Christmas is language geekiness time :) The Christmas service is aired live and there's always commentary explaining the rituals/traditions/origins of things, always with some Greek/Latin/Old Church Slavonic words here and there :) I don't always watch it, though. I've not yet started listening to them so I forgot - my Christmas songs are in Finnish, there is a wonderful rock compilation and I downloaded the more traditional versions of those I like most. Here in Russia I think the native Christmas songs are all religious. Edited by Serpent on 09 December 2011 at 12:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4888 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 7 of 26 09 December 2011 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sadly, everything is in English here but then I wouldn't expect anything different from England. It's nice to know that christmas trees were brought here by Queen Victoria's husband from Germany, altho I do fear that children aren't being taught this stuff in school. I think everyone just assumes that everything Christmassy is English even with the knowledge of the birth of Jesus etc. Of course, Father Christmas speaks English... Not many children would be told that he either speaks many langugaes or that his mother tongue is Finnish(??) because he lives in Lapland.
I think Christmas could be heavily influenced by America, I mean, Christmas doesn't "officially" start here until the Christmas Coca-Cola advert starts playing on tv! I think that Christmas here is a mix between British English and American English with maybe a little Latin thrown in at some church services? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 26 09 December 2011 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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